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The Obsession with The Daily’s Departures Continues

Gabriel Dance, an Art Director for The Daily, is the seventh person to depart the iPad newspaper in nine months, so today The Huffington Post attempts to figure out why people are leaving. Because this is what the media does almost every time someone exits the digital newspaper.

Apparently there a few issues driving staffers away, from writers having to sign strict confidentiality agreements to contracts forbidding them from working for competitors such as The New York Times Magazine for a year after they depart. And there’s more:

Former staffers say there were frequent technical problems and suggest The Daily may have launched too soon. There was also confusion regarding The Daily’s intended audience. Not to mention, for some Daily staffers — especially digital natives used to publishing immediately online and engaging more with social media — there could be frustration in now dealing with the longer lead times required to get an afternoon article prepared to run on the device by morning.

Those are all valid reasons making people leave, but here’s what we’re wondering: Why is the media so obsessed with this subject?

It’s been nine months since The Daily launched and its lost seven people. Seven. Is that something to be concerned about – especially considering The Daily is a completely new venture?

Sure, there are people leaving The Daily, but guess what? People leave companies all the time. It’s true! But for some reason, each time someone leaves The Daily someone else publishes a post debating the greater implications of the departures.

Let’s move on. People are going to leave The Daily, we’re all just going to have to calm down and get used to it.

With that said, stay tuned for an update on Mikey the Mouse, who apparently is unhappy with the scraps he’s found on The Daily’s kitchen floor, and is thinking of leaving for The Wall Street Journal.